ABOUT THE KNOWN WORLD

The Known World is little microcosm I run for the kids using Basic20 and inspired by the The Microlite Campaign∞ plus a few free tools I found on the internet. The idea is to start in a hex and grow the world out (mostly at random) from there. I started on the west edge of an ancient forest named Briarwood in a hamlet called Applegate. The forest is home to many foul beasties and is fought over by a clan of wood elves, several tribes of goblinoids, and some shapeshifting bandits. The players will start in Applegate and will have a few hooks available to them. Their decisions and actions will then determine how and where the world grows. This could get interesting...

MAPS, JUNK, STUFF & THINGS

Maps in the Known World are done on two different scales to represent outdoor areas and indoor areas (unless specified differently on a map). The outdoor maps are represented in hexes as shown in the key to the left. Each hex represents approximately six miles and each group of six hexes forms a 'meta-hex' of approximately 24 miles, or about a day's journey. Outdoor maps are created using HexMapper 1.0b∞ which are then 'cleaned up' using 'Paint'. Indoor maps are rendered in squares which represent approximately five feet each and are created using Dungeon Crafter v1.4∞ and The GIMP∞. The clickable imagemaps were all created afterwards using Mapedit∞. Almost all the NPCs and their treasures were created using Jamis Buck's NPC∞ and Treasure∞ Generators. Many other things were generated randomly at Seventh Sanctum∞ and The Demonweb∞. Wizards of the Coast has many nice maps for fair use in their Map of the Week Archives∞.

DESIGNATION OF PRODUCT IDENTITY

The Known World and Basic20 are published under the OGL with 'Product Identity' being in this kind of text and 'Open Game Content' being like so:



TABLE: Tools Used to Create the Known World

  TOOL                  URL
  --------------------------------------------------------------------
  Dungeon Crafter v1.4  http://dungeoncrafter3.com/legacy/ 
  The GIMP              http://www.gimp.org/downloads/
  HexMapper 1.0b        http://home.paonline.com/zaikoski/ak/TOOLS.HTM
  Mapedit               http://www.boutell.com/mapedit/
  Paint                 C:\WINDOWS\system32\mspaint.exe
  Paint.net             http://www.getpaint.net/index2.html
  GIMP                  http://www.gimp.org/
  Random Generators     http://www.aarg.net/~minam/
  Vim                   http://www.vim.org/download.php
  --------------------------------------------------------------------

Since I am just a dad trying to have fun with my kids, and not a Megacorporation Out to Rule the World^™, I am not seeking to profit in this endeavor. I therefore release all 'Product Identity' to the world at large, free of charge, via the Creative Commons∞. Share and share alike!

Anyhow, have fun!

LoreWeaver

See also:

• Development Notes